The Return of Daddy Davis
by CallMeGeneralAwesome
Summary: Brooke Davis-Baker's father is back in town.  Why is he back in Tree Hill?  How will this affect Brooke?  Is he just stirring up trouble or does he possibly want forgiveness?  Will Brooke seek closure?  Please read and find out!


**A/N Hey guys. So I'm back with a new story. Hope y'all enjoy it. =]**

**Uh the description pretty much describes this story – Brooke's dad comes back to town and Brooke reacts.**

**It seems like a fun idea and I can't wait to see how the situation is handled on the actual show, but nonetheless I hope y'all enjoy this. =] **

**Also, one last note – I haven't read any spoilers for the ninth season. So, absolutely none of this is based on spoilers. I actually don't even know if there are any Brooke spoilers…I've only heard about Clay ones and Nathan ones.**

**Anyways. I don't own any of this and I hope y'all enjoy the story! Please review, it really means a lot and makes me smile and makes my day. =]**

The Return of Daddy Davis

Richard Davis stepped off of the plane and immediately scowled. He wrinkled his nose; his sense of smell was not yet used to the great change from the smoggy-yet-familiar air of Los Angeles to the clean,, Atlantic-Ocean-scented air of Tree Hill, North Carolina.

He had his suit jacket folded over his arm, which was bent at the elbow. His hat was in one hand and his briefcase was in the other. He lifted his arm to put on his hat, then reached into his pocket.

He pulled a faded picture of a little dimpled, hazel-eyed girl, no older than eight or nine years old. The little girl was not smiling at the camera, like children usually do in pictures. No, this little girl was distracted. She had her head turned away from the camera, towards her father, who was sitting on a recliner in the corner of the room. The picture was taken while the father was in the middle of the process of folding his newspaper so he could pay attention to his daughter. There was a slight smile on the man's face because he had the attention of the little girl.

Richard sighed softly to himself. His hair had a healthy shine to it when that picture was taken. His face had less wrinkles. The little girl was no more than four and a half feet tall, and that was pushing it. That little girl was all grown up now, though.

"Sir, I'm sorry, but you need to exit the plane," a stewardess said from behind Richard.

The Davis man put the photo back in his pocket. "Yes, of course," he said, then made his way down the stairs of the plane.

He walked across the tarmac while he put on his coat. He made his way to a man in a driver's uniform who was holding up a white board that said "R. Davis" on it.

"Hello," Richard said. "I'm Richard Davis."

The driver nodded while offering a welcoming smile. He opened the door for Richard, who entered the car.

"I trust that you know the address that I included in my email when I ordered this chauffer service?" Richard asked the driver once he got into the vehicle.

"Yes, sir," the driver responded. His voice made him sound young, probably no older than his mid-twenties. He was most likely just out of college, working to make ends meet until he finds a career.

Richard did not care much for the driver, though. He had more important things to do, like visiting his daughter.

**TRoDD**

Brooke Davis-Baker was enjoying having her house to herself for a day. The twins were completely healthy, so Julian decided he would take them out for a day in the park. They were too young to really do anything, but Julian had a double –seated stroller and the weather was lovely, so the oldest Baker man decided that it would be fun to take the boys for a walk.

Brooke had wanted to go with him, but Julian insisted she take some time off. She had been incredibly busy lately, what with running the café and taking care of the twins. Not that she was alone in either endeavor; Haley was a hard-working co-owner of Karen's Café and Julian was an excellent father. Nonetheless, it was still a lot of work for Brooke so Julian decided his wife deserved a day off.

Brooke was unsure of what to do with herself. She was so used to having Julian and the twins around that the silence felt odd to her. So, she busied herself by doing laundry and other household chores.

When Brooke was carrying her second basket of laundry up the stairs, she heard the doorbell ring. She sighed while smiling, like she was admitting to herself that she really knew that she could not really have a day to herself. Someone would always come.

Not that Brooke minded; Brooke enjoyed company. She figured it was probably Millie, wanting some advice for her wardrobe for her morning show, or maybe even Julian, coming home a little early because the boys might have gotten restless.

Brooke put the basket down on the base of the stairs and went to open the door.

Her face went blank as soon as she recognized the face.

"Hello," the man said.

Brooke was in a stunned silence for a few seconds. "Hi," she managed to say. "Dad."

Richard Davis' face was unreadable as he tried to read his daughter's face. He was trying to gauge her reaction to his appearance, but his face would never betray that information. To Brooke, he looked unamused and all business.

After a few more seconds of silence, Richard spoke up.

"You got…tall," he said.

Brooke rolled her eyes. "I've been this height since I was sixteen."

Richard nodded and averted his eyes. He lifted them and focused on Brooke's hair. "The highlights, those blond streaks. Those are new."

"They aren't that new, I've had them for about two years now," Brooke said. "They were really noticeable at my wedding."

"Brooke, I-."

"Don't," Brooke said, cutting her father off before he could speak. Brooke was half worried that he would offer an apology for missing her wedding, which she wouldn't believe because she knew he wasn't sorry. But the other half of Brooke was scared that he wouldn't apologize, even though Brooke irrationally wanted to hear him say it.

"Can I come in?"

Brooke sighed. "Sure," she said indifferently.

"You have a lovely house," Richard said as he walked in, briefcase in hand. "It seems like it was a good investment."

"It was," Brooke replied.

"Is anyone else home?" Richard asked. "Where's your husband?"

"He has a name, Dad," Brooke said.

"I know his name," Richard said. Brooke cocked an eyebrow at him. "Is Julian home?"

"No, he went out for a bit," Brooke said. She was cautious about mentioning the twins. She knew she had told her father about them; Richard was definitely informed at some point that Brooke and Julian had had twin sons.

Brooke was scared to mention them, though, because she didn't know if Richard remembered. And Brooke knew she would not be able to bear seeing a look of confusion flash across her father's face when she mentioned Davis and Jude. Brooke would not be able to handle it if Richard's face showed that he had forgotten about the twins.

"How have you been?" Richard asked.

"I've been alright," Brooke asked. She was cold at first, but she was starting to warm up to her father. That was just how Brooke was; she was always cautiously hopeful. She was cold at first because she was so completely not expecting her father to show up, but now that he was there, Brooke was slowly peeling back the walls she put up, hoping to give her father a glimpse of who she is and hoping he would finally approve.

Brooke knew all of that was happening; she had gotten to the point where she recognized this pattern of behavior. But she also was ashamed enough of it that she was in denial that it happened. She wasn't proud that she kept giving out chances to her dad like all the times he let her down had no effect at all, especially when everyone else could see that he let her down. So, Brooke just told herself that she was behaving in a polite, civil, acceptable way.

"That's good," Richard said.

"How have you been?" Brooke asked.

"I've been alright," he answered.

"Did you take off from work to come here?" Brooke asked.

Richard shook his head. "I have a meeting in Charlotte tomorrow," he said.

"Right," Brooke said softly, mentally scolding herself for thinking that her dad would take off from work to visit her. Work and career were the most important things to Richard Davis and they always had been.

"I convinced my boss to let me leave early today, though," Richard said. "I was supposed to work half the day today then fly here so I'd be in Charlotte tonight, but I convinced them to let me come here today then drive to the meeting tomorrow."

"Okay," Brooke said. She didn't want to give in and show any reaction to that news. She honestly didn't know how to react. On the one hand, her father sort of took a day off from work to visit her. On the other hand, he was going to be here anyways for work so he didn't go that far out of his way and he still hadn't mentioned Davis and Jude.

"How's your mother?" Richard asked.

"She's fine," Brooke said.

"It's a shame about what she did to your company," Richard said. "I can't believe she' d do that and completely ruin your company like that."

"Dad, no," Brooke said sternly. "If you came all the way here to badmouth Mom, I want you to leave."

"I'm not here to badmouth Victoria," Richard said.

"Then why are you here?" Brooke asked.

Richard looked a little stunned. He didn't say anything.

"You haven't even ever met Julian, you didn't come to Thanksgiving, you never take me up on my offers for us to visit you, you missed my wedding, and you haven't even met your grandsons!" Brooke exploded. "So what the hell is so important that you are here now, Dad?"

"I just wanted to see you…" Richard said.

"That's bull," Brooke said. "You always have a reason, Dad. Always. Everything you do is calculated so that you can reach the best possible result. And since I don't have a company anymore, I'm guessing you aren't here for any business prospects and since all you care about is business, I really do not know why you are here."

Richard avoided the question. Silently he walked over to the coffee table and set his briefcase on top of it.

"What are you doing?" Brooke asked.

Richard opened the briefcase. He pulled out two small teddy bears. One had the letter "J" sewn into it and the other had the letter "D" sewn into it.

"I got these for your sons," Richard said. "I wanted to get them something, but I didn't know what size they were so I wouldn't have been any good at buying clothes. So I got them teddy bears."

Brooke was silent for a few seconds. She swallowed hard. "Jude has a stuffed animal from Julian's mom that he adores. It's a turtle. Davis is terrified of them; he can't stand to have anything but a blanket in his crib."

Richard nodded solemnly, accepting this statement as a rejection and a testament to the fact that he had missed so much of his daughter's life.

"Oh," Richard said. He stared down at the two bears in his hands.

Brooke sighed slightly. "But who knows," she began. "Maybe they'll grow on the twins. What child doesn't love a teddy bear, right?" She forced out those last several words, trying to take the high road and comfort her father.

Richard looked up. "Thank you," he said simply.

He handed the bears over to Brooke and then looked at his watch.

"I…I should get going," he said.

Brooke nodded, shifting the bears so that she held them in only one arm. Her other arm was bent with her hand resting on her hip.

Richard gathered up his briefcase and headed towards the door. He put his hand in his pocket out of habit, then stopped short of the door.

He stood there for a few seconds.

"Dad…" Brooke said.

He turned. He took the photo out of his pocket. "This is why I came," he said. "I've had this picture since you were about eight or nine years old. I don't have many pictures of us together, but I somehow lost this one. I found it again when I was cleaning out my closet. I found it in the pocket of an old blazer."

Brooke held her free arm out and her father put the picture in her hand. She looked down at it.

"I remember this day," she said. Richard smiled a bit at that statement. "It was a Sunday morning. I was up early so I went outside to get the newspaper for you. I gave it to you and you sat on that recliner, like you always did on Sunday mornings when you were home, and read the business section. When I was outside, I found a ladybug on the newspaper. After I handed the paper to you, the ladybug stayed on my finger. This was taken when I called your name to show you the ladybug."

"Oh, I remember that" Richard said, smiling slightly again.

Confusion flashed across Brooke's face and Richard knew he had been caught in a lie. He didn't remember. That was why the picture was so captivating to him – he did not remember the situation at all, so he could make it up in his mind. And in his mind, the situation was one of father-daughter bonding without any words needing to be spoken.

"You were folding your newspaper because the radio was on and you had just heard that stock in your company at the time had risen," Brooke said. "You were getting up to go call your coworker and you were smiling because your boss had promised you that if stock prices rose, you'd get a big bonus for Christmas that year. Your dad was over and he took a picture because he knew you'd be happy at that time."

Richard was silent.

"I don't know what you remember, or if you even remember," Brooke admitted. "But you were not smiling at me, or even really paying much attention to me."

Richard was quiet for a few more seconds, as was Brooke.

Richard broke the silence. "It is one of the only pictures I have of the two of us. I'm sorry about that."

Brooke tried to contain her emotions. She managed to shrug. "It is what it is. You can't change the past and magically make this picture mean something more than it does. Sorry."

"Don't be sorry," Richard said. "It isn't your fault; it never was."

Brooke felt tears come to her eyes and she couldn't speak.

Richard took the picture from his daughter's hand and walked to the coffee table. "I'm going to leave this here," he said, placing it down on the table.

"Goodbye, Brooke," he said just before walking out the door.

"Goodbye, Dad," Brooke said.

**TRoDD**

"Hey, Brooke?" Julian called to his wife from the twins' room. "Where did these bears on the windowsill come from?"

Brooke walked into the room. She looked over at the windowsill where she had placed the bears after her dad left. She knew better than to put them in the twins' cribs; the twins wouldn't like the fluffy intrusion. But Brooke figured that the bears could still have a place in the room.

"They were a gift from a relative," she said. "I was looking through all the baby stuff that we had and someone gave them to us. I totally forgot about them until I found them."

"Oh," Julian said, shrugging and accepting this excuse.

Brooke didn't like lying to Julian. But she didn't want to talk about her dad, not yet anyways. She figured she would tell Julian that they were gifts for the babies, because they were. She also figured that Julian didn't _need_ to know exactly who they were from. Brooke doubted that her dad would be back, anyways.

Even so, Brooke had a drawer where she kept old pictures. That drawer had a new addition – a twenty year old picture of a little girl and her father. Brooke knew that the situation in which the photo was taken was not ideal, but part of her wasn't sure that it mattered anymore. It was the only picture she had of her and her father where her father at least appeared to be acknowledging Brooke.

And for Brooke, that would be enough.

**A/N The end! This was the story. A one-shot. I hope y'all enjoyed it! Please, please, please review! I love feedback!**

**Thank you very much for reading, and have a wonderful day!**


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